The last few years have been troubled for the Gnome Project. Once a premier desktop environment for Linux, it has seen its market share diminish amid user dissatisfaction over Gnome 3 and accusations that the project was ignoring users. Yet, over the last six months, something important has been happening: Slowly and quietly, the members of Gnome have started trying to turn the situation around.

Because of their novel look and feel, both Gnome 3 and Ubuntu’s Unity have been running into harsh criticism from many users. In response, Mint, an Ubuntu spinoff, has revived the Gnome 2 feel on its own desktop.